1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a distributed decoding device using a multi-core processor and a method for the same. In the present invention, a bit-stream of MPEG data is divided into a plurality of slices, so that the decoding processing for each slice is distributed to multiple cores as threads such that the slices are separately and independently decoded, and then the decoded data is merged.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a multi-core processor means an integrated circuit having two or more Central Processing Units (CPUs) mounted therein. Because increasing the operation frequency of a single CPU reaches a limit, multi-core processor is widely used where two or more CPUs cooperate so as to overcome the limit in frequency.
The processing unit of the multi-core processor is a thread. The multi-core processor disposes threads into a CPU having smaller computing load.
The MPEG decoding algorithm in the prior art assumes that a single CPU operates to perform decoding. Therefore, even when MPEG data is decoded by the multi-core processor, an overall MPEG decoding thread is disposed into a CPU. That is, when a dual-processor using two CPUs or a quad-processor using four CPUs decodes MPEG data through the existing MPEG decoding algorithm, computing load is concentrated on one CPU. Then, computation load of the multiple CPUs are non-uniformly maintained.
As such, multiple cores of a multi-core processor are not uniformly utilized when processing a large computing load, i.e. MPEG decoding.